John Tavares might eventually get a chance to make his home in Ottawa, but it's going to have to be with the Senators.

While 67's coach and GM Brian Kilrea said yesterday he would have welcomed the 18-year-old star centre before he was dealt by the Oshawa Generals to the London Knights earlier this month, Ottawa was never seriously interested because of the high asking price for Tavares.

After seeing what Tavares can do firsthand with Team Canada, fans in Ottawa -- and those tuning in nationally on Rogers Sportsnet -- will get another glimpse when the Knights make their only visit of the season to the Civic Centre today at 3 p.m.

Tavares was traded to the Knights in a huge deal with D Michael Del Zotto and G Daryl in exchange for F Christian Thomas, D Scott Valentine, G Michael Zador, along with six draft picks. London surrendered four second-round picks for the next four years, and third-round picks in both 2010 and 2011 to the Generals.

No wonder Kilrea couldn't wouldn't get involved.

"It's not that I didn't want him. Every team would have wanted him," said Kilrea. "Knowing what I heard (the Generals) wanted, because we did hear rumours of what they wanted, I didn't have the young players that I could give up as well as the draft picks."

Kilrea said the Knights are in a position where they want to battle for OHL championship and the Memorial Cup. Mind you, getting out of the Western Conference won't be easy because Windsor and Saginaw are both formidable foes.

"They were tough without (Tavares), I would just imagine they are going to be tougher with him," said Kilrea. "The one thing is when he's on the ice you have to be aware. You have to hope that your best guys are going to have to be able to contain him.

"The big thing for us is to stay out of the penalty box because we all know how good he is on the power play. We all saw that during the world juniors here."

Not only does Tavares have more than 400 points in his OHL career, he's also close to breaking former 67's great Peter Lee's career record of 215 goals. After last night's 3-2 win over the Bulls in Belleville, Tavares has 197, which means the record is likely to fall.